"it is what I know, so am able to tell" Li-Young Lee

This election day

I have a hard time with politics. Too much deceit, divisiveness, and lack of truth. Yet the election is the only thing anyone is speaking of, so here are my thoughts.

Hold me now
I am floating away
into the overcast sky over my hometown
on election day

What is it about Birmingham?
What is it about Buffalo?

That the hate-filled want to build bunkers in your beautiful red earth
They want to build them in our shining white snow.

– Ani DiFranco

Divisiveness is the hammer in our politics now. Though it is not a recent quote, it still applies. However, in looking for something else to contemplate in light of today, I saw this quote, used by Brene Brown in her book Daring Greatly.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who
points out how the strong man stumbles, or where
the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in
the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who
comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and short-
coming; but who does actually strive to do the
deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great
devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at best knows in the end the triumph of
high achievement, and who at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly…

– Theodore Roosevelt

I really hope that voter turnout is much higher than it has been. And, I hope, regardless of the outcomes, we remember to continue daring greatly.